Out into the Black
by ricojohn
Summary: Annabeth is a Demigod daughter of Athena and Mal Reynolds. Follow her as she and her crew not only try and survive the black and dodge the alliance but also try and survive monsters that have claimed the lives of millions of Demigods. Summery sucks, give it a try. M because I'm paranoid.
1. Chapter 1

A Message from the author: Been watching firefly and serenity and was inspired to wright this.

Intro

POV: Annabeth

So here's how it is, Earth got used up so we terraformed a whole mess of Earths across the galaxy. The planets in the center formed the alliance. They believed all planets should join them and brought a war to make it so. A few idiots tried to fight them, among them was my father, Malcom Reynolds.

After the independence lost the war he got himself a boat called Serenity and a crew to fly it. They flew together for a long while before they went to a planet called Maranda and learned what the Alliance did. They told the verce about where Reivers came from and started a whole new war. The new Independence lost but put up a good fight. In the midst of this new war though my father lost Jane, Simon, Kaylee, Zoe, and his wife Inara. The only upside was he met my mother, Athena.

I know my mother's name sounds like the Greek goddess, well, that's cause she is. I'm nineteen now and on my own. My father died a few months ago in his sleep, leaving me all alone on Serenity. I've debated selling her and settling down. Try and build something permanent, but I can't stand the thought of letting her go. So I brought on a crew. A group of demi gods who hate the Alliance as much as I do.

I've got Leo, our mechanic and son of Hephaestus. Then there's Jason, son of Jupiter and my first mate/ back up pilot. Our muscle, Frank, son of Mars. Our medic, Will, son of Apollo and his boyfriend Nico, son of Hades, who is very connected in the criminal underworld as well as the actual one. Then there's Nico's half-sister Hazel, daughter of Pluto. If there's something valuable to be had she knows where to find it due to her powers. Our silver tongue on board for those sticky situations, is Piper, daughter of Aphrodite. Finally, there is Percy, son of Poseidon.

Once man expanded past the Earth and into space, the Black was rolled into Poseidon's territory because we humans think of it as sailing. The sky still belongs to Zeus' but once you leave orbit of a planet and enter the black you are in Poseidon's turf. That being said Percy has the ability to navigate space without instruments. He just knows where he is and how to fly the ship. He's the best pilot we could have asked for.

So that's my crew, and as my father used to say,

You got a job, we can do it. Don't much care what it is.

Que the music

"Take my love, take my land  
Take me where I cannot stand  
I don't care, I'm still free  
You can't take the sky from me.

Take me out to the black  
Tell them I ain't comin' back  
Burn the land and boil the sea  
You can't take the sky from me.

There's no place I can be  
Since I've found Serenity

And you can't take the sky from me."

Chapter 1: A New Job

POV: Annabeth

"Are you kidding me?!" Will screamed at me. "That is a horrible idea!"

His voice echoed around the cargo bay of Serenity.

"It's not the worst one she's ever had." Jason pointed out.

"Hay!" I protested. "My ideas aren't bad!"

"You want to space walk from one moving ship to another." Leo said. "I can't see anything going wrong there!"

"Captain!" Came Percy's voice over the speakers. "We're approaching the freighter, trying to match their speed now."

"Suit up." I ordered. "All of you."

And so we quickly suited up in our space suits and stood in the depressurized cargo bay as Leo opened the front ramp.

Outside was an Alliance freighter with plenty of profit on board. Medicine, rations, weapons, and best of all was the shipping containers filled to the brim with fuel cells and other vital ship parts.

"Remember the plan." I told my crew. "Jump on, disable their ship and take the cargo. Knock their crew out if you can but kill if you must."

"Does this feel wrong to any one ells?" Will asked.

"They're Alliance." Jason said. "They're the enemy and I have no problem hurting the enemy."

"Don't get too trigger happy." Frank cut in. "You heard the captain, don't kill them if you don't have to."

"Why is it that the muscle on the ship is the least trigger happy of all?" Leo asked. "Does anyone ells find that disturbing?"

"I ain't no pacifist." Frank said. "I'll knock some heads if it comes to that but I ain't gona kill if I don't gota."

"Guys!" I cut them off. "Jump on three. One, two, Three!"

We ran towards the edge of the ramp and jumped out into the black on a collision course with the freighter.

"Get ready!" I called out as we drew closer.

I reached out my hand and grabbed onto the ship. I nearly lost my grip as I slammed into it and for a moment I pictured myself drifting off into the black with no way of getting back to Serenity.

"Everyone good?" I called out as my crew confirmed that we all made it. "Then get inside!"

So we found a hatch and Leo rigged up an explosive to blow the airlock open. A lot of air came rushing out of the ship when we blew the hatch.

Once inside we sealed the door in back off us, hopping the temporary lack of oxygen knocked out the crew of the freighter.

Leo, Jason, and Piper mad their way to the bridge as Hazel, Nico, Will, frank, and I made our way to the cargo hold.

"We took the bridge." Jason said through the mic. "Cutting the engines now."

"Piper," I began. "Get the crew to surrender."

"On it." She answered as the PA blared to life.

"You should all lay down your weapons and let us take your cargo." Came Piper's voice over the PA.

'Dam she's good.' I thought as I fought the urge to drop my pistol that my dad left me.

It was at this time that we reached the cargo hold and found a group of Alliance troops standing around in the hold with their rifles on the floor.

"Frank, keep an eye on them." I said. "The rest of you, help me move this cargo."

It was then that I heard a thunk on the hull of the ship and a hiss of an airlock sealing to another.

"Will," I said. "Get the door. Hazel, find the good stuff."

They both nodded.

Will opened the airlock in the cargo bay to reveal Serenity's airlock as Hazel went from crate to crate, picking out the valuables.

Then Jason, Leo, and Piper joined us and we moved the whole hall back to our ship and sealed the airlock in back of us.

"Percy," I said into the intercom in our cargo bay. "Get us out of here."

"On it." He answered as I felt my ship begin to move.

"You disabled their engine, right Leo?" I asked.

He nodded.

"Set our course for the drop point." I told Percy.

"That actually went well." Leo said in surprise.

"Don't sound so surprised." I told him. "Athena always has a plan."

Time Break!

POV: Annabeth

I squinted as the ramp lowered to reveal bright sunlight.

"I forgot how great fresh air smells." Will commented as he stepped onto the ramp to disembark Serenity with one of the cargo boxes.

"Yah," Hazel said as she set down a box at the base of the ramp. "I missed that smell."

I picked up a box and placed it at the base of the ramp as well when a familiar voice called out to me.

"Annabeth!" Chiron called out to me. "It's good to see you."

I gave him a smile, glad to see the old centar.

"Hi, Chiron." I greeted as he spotted the crates.

"Those are the supplies I requested?" He asked as I nodded. "Should I ask how you managed to acquire them?"

"That depends if you want to sleep well at night." Percy said in back of me as he set down a crate.

"It's good to see you, Percy." Chiron greeted as Percy approached us and gave Chiron his signature grin.

"Is there any way I can repay you all for what you have done?" Chiron asked.

I shook my head.

"Just give us a cut of the profit from this stuff and a place to lay low for a few days while we repair Serenity." I said.

Chiron nodded.

"Of course." He said. "You are always welcome here."

I nodded my thanks and turned back to my crew.

"Leo," I began. "You have two days to swap out any bad parts with the new ones before I want this boat in the air."

He gave me a nod and returned to the ship.

"As for the rest of you I want this ship restocked on all supplies by the time we're ready to leave." I said as they nodded.

"I'll be going through our nav computer in the meantime." I said as I walked up the ramp into my ship.

"I don't get why she does that." I heard Frank whisper as I left. "Percy never uses it anyway."

I ignored him and went up to the bridge to try and get some peace and quiet. While sitting in the pilot's chair, however, the computer monitor alerted me to an incoming communication video.

I shrugged and answered.

"Hello?" I said as a woman came into view.

"Hello there," The woman said. "You're Annabeth?"

"Who wants to know?" I asked, getting suspicious.

Was she Alliance?

She smiled sweetly.

"You can just call me C for now." She said. "I was hoping to hire your crew for a job."

"How much you payin'?" I asked, leaning back in my chair.

"Don't you want to know what the job is?" She asked.

"Don't much care what it is, so long as you ain't alliance." I said.

She smirked.

"That's what I heard your policy was." She said, chuckling. "In that case I will pay two hundred thousand credits to transport some of my black market beagles from Meda to New Athens."

Two hundred thousand! To transport some stupid beagles! Meda and New Athens were only a day's ride through the black from each other. Hell yah!

"Sounds good." I said, keeping my cool. "A little too good."

"I assure you that this is the job of a life time." She said.

"Why you payin so high?" I asked, not trusting this offer yet.

"Let's just say I need to get rid of them quick and my last crew is quite incapable of transporting them now." She said with a small smile.

"See, it's talk like that, that makes me a little twitchy." I said. "So I want half the pay up front so I know this is legitimate."

She nodded.

"That's understandable." She said. "When can I expect your arrival?"

"Give me four days." I said. "Makin repairs on Serenity now, should be a couple of days and then one or two days to travel to ya."

She nodded.

"Then I'll see you then." She said. "I'm sending you my location now."

One of the screens to my right beeped as a Nav location appeared on it.

"I look forward to doing business." I told her as I hung up. "Nico!" I called out. "Get your but up here!"

There was a pause before Nico entered the room.

"What's up?" He asked.

"I got us a possible job but it seems fishy to me." I told him. "See what you can find out from your connections about a woman named C on Meda who's looking to sell black market beagles."

"Beagles?" He asked, looking taken aback. "Why are they black market?"

"That's what I want you to find out." I told him as I stood up and walked out past him.

Time Break!

POV: Annabeth

Later that night we were sitting amongst the camp, enjoying the camp fire and talking with our siblings we haven't seen in forever.

The fire was a bright orange, crackling warmly as children of Apollo sang. All around me my crew was celebrating.

Hazel and frank were laughing on a log a few feet away from me, Piper and Jason were dancing, Leo was waving his arms around excitedly as he regaled his siblings with some of our funnier exploits, and even Nico was smiling as he watched his boyfriend sing with the other Apollo children.

It was nice to be able to relax for a while.

As I sat on the log, tapping my foot along to the music, Percy plopped down next to me.

"And how are you tonight cap?" He asked, shooting me his signature grin.

"Fine." I answered through a chuckle. "You?"

"Doin' great!" He answered. "Shame we gota leave here."

I nodded in agreement.

"Yes, it is." I said. "But we got a job waiting on Meda and so once Serenity's all patched up and stocked we have to go."

He nodded.

"I get it." He said. "Still though, it's nice to have a place to call home."

I glanced over at him, knowing what he was saying.

"I'm not forcin' ya onto Serenity." I told him. "If you wana stay then stay."

Percy looked hurt at my words.

"I don't want to leave Serenity." He said. "I was just wondering what it would be like to not travel. You know, settle down and find a home."

I nodded, contemplating his words before I spoke.

"I used to think the same thing." I said, staring into the fire. "Before I realized what Serenity truly is. She's freedom. She's our beacon in the black. No matter what happens, or how bad things get, she's always there to see us through it." I paused. "To be honest, I think my home is the black."

Now it was Percy's turn to nod in contemplation.

"Smart and deep." He said with a nod. "I tell ya, Annabeth, you sure are full of surprises."

I gave him a small smile.

"Don't judge a book by its cover, Seaweed Brain." I told him.

He nodded.

Time Break!

It's been two days since we landed and we were all onboard, ready to take off.

"How's our systems looking?" I asked Leo as I passed the engine room.

"As good as it ever will." He said, rubbing the back of his neck.

I nodded and headed up to the bridge where Percy sat in the pilot's seat with Jason opposite him in the co-pilot's seat.

"How we looking?" I asked them as I entered the room.

"Nav charts look good." Jason said, reaching to his left and messing with some dials. "Not that we'll need them." He added under his breath while shooting Percy a glance.

"Serenity seems ready for the black." Percy said. "Whenever you're ready Captain."

I nodded.

"Then take us out." I said, placing a hand on the back of Percy's chair and watching out the window to see the sky rush past.

All at once the sky faded to black and stars appeared on the horizon as we exited the atmosphere.

"Where are you going?" Jason demanded from his chair. "The chart said to head out to Kay and hook around to Meda. We're pointing the wrong way."

"No we're not." Percy said calmly. "We're going to get our gravity assist from an asteroid half way between us and Meda. It'll save us half the time this way."

"What asteroid?" Jason demanded.

"You're sure there's an asteroid out there?" I asked Percy.

If he was wrong, we might wind up drifting in the black.

He nodded.

"I can feel it out there." He said. "It's moving fast but I can get us on an intercept course and use its momentum and gravity to boost us to Meda in half the time then if we went to Kay."

I nodded.

"Then do it." I told him as I turned around to head back to my room.

"One of these days you're going to have to properly explain how a son of Poseidon is this good at flying." Jason said to Percy as I left.

I could hear them both laughing as I descended the latter to my room, happy to be back in the black.

A MESSAGE FROM THE AUTHOR: Like it? Then post a review to let me know you want more!


	2. Chapter 2

A Message From The Author: Sorry for the delay. Here's chapter two.

Intro

POV: Annabeth

So here's how it is, Earth got used up so we terraformed a whole mess of Earths across the galaxy. The planets in the center formed the alliance. They believed all planets should join them and brought a war to make it so. A few idiots tried to fight them, among them was my father, Malcom Reynolds.

After the independence lost the war he got himself a boat called Serenity and a crew to fly it. They flew together for a long while before they went to a planet called Maranda and learned what the Alliance did. They told the verce about where Reivers came from and started a whole new war. The new Independence lost but put up a good fight. In the midst of this new war though my father lost Jayne, Simon, Kaylee, Zoe, and his wife Inara. The only upside was he met my mother, Athena.

My father died a few months ago in his sleep, leaving me all alone on Serenity. So, I brought on a crew, A pair of ace pilots, an engineer to keep her in the air, a silver tongue and muscle for those sticky situations, a gold finder and her brother with connections so we can make a live'n and even got a doc on board to.

So that's my crew, and as my father used to say,

You got a job, we can do it. Don't much care what it is.

Que the music

"Take my love, take my land  
Take me where I cannot stand  
I don't care, I'm still free  
You can't take the sky from me.

Take me out to the black  
Tell them I ain't comin' back  
Burn the land and boil the sea  
You can't take the sky from me.

There's no place I can be  
Since I've found Serenity

You can't take the sky from me."

Chapter 2: Meda

POV: Annabeth

"Captain." Jason's voice came through the com panel in my room.

"Yah." I replied to him.

"Percy says we're approaching the asteroid." He said.

"Sling shot in five minutes." I heard Percy call out from across the room from Jason.

"On my way." I told them.

So, I walked over to my ladder and ascended it to the hall way above that connects the rest of the ship to the bridge.

"I still don't see it." I heard Jason muter as I entered the bridge.

"That doesn't mean it's not there." Percy pointed out. "Just wait, it's there."

It was at this point that they realized I had entered the bridge.

"Hay, Cap." Percy greeted. "Wanted to watch the show?"

"Just makin sure you're not going to break my boat." I teased him, causing Jason to crack up.

Percy gave me a trouble maker's grin.

"Don't worry, Annabeth." He said. "She'll be nice and shiny when I'm done."

"I'm holdin ya to that." I told him as a shadow started to emerge outside the window. "That it?"

"Yup." Percy answered. "That's it."

He began to mess with the controls in preparation the maneuver he was about to pull.

"Percy," Jason called out with a concerned tone. "It's spinning at a high, erratic, velocity."

"I know." Percy answered, not sounding at all concerned as the asteroid emerged into the light.

It was a huge bean shaped rock with large valleys and tall peaks coming off of it as it tumbled in two directions at once.

"How low do we have to get to build up a gravity assist?" I asked Percy, now becoming worried.

"Low," He answered, as he focused his attention out the window and jammed the throttle to top speed. "and fast."

I stared out the window as we flew closer and closer to the asteroid. We flew so close that the mountains and even some of the valley tops were above us.

Percy didn't pull up however as he rolled Serenity this way and that to dodge the tumbling asteroid's mountains and valley walls.

"This is suicide!" Jason screamed as Percy steered us around another mountain.

"We're almost there." Percy asured him as he dove down lower so Serenity flew under a tumbling rock bridge in a valley.

Then he suddenly pulled up and cut the throttle with a big smile on his face.

"And we're off!" He called out in a sarcastic announcer voice.

"Nav chart says we're good." Jason commented as he checked his monitor.

"Percy," I began through gritted teeth. "Don't you ever do that again."

"Ah, Come on cap!" Percy said cheerily. "I had her handled."

"What the hell are you doing to my boat?!" Leo's voice called out from the com panel to the right of Percy. "The engine and gravitational stabilizers are practically fried. They were all over the place! I can't keep her together if you keep putting here through suicide stunts!"

I raised an accusatory eye brow at Percy as I walked over to the com panel.

"Your boat?" I asked as I pressed on the talk button. "Last I checked, I run this ship."

There was a pause.

"I know cap," Leo replied. "But when you work on a ship enough you develop a bond with it and it hurts to see her hurt'n like this."

"Mmmhhhmmm," I said in a teasing way. "can you fix her?" I asked him.

"Sure." He said. "But I need Percy to take it easy for the rest of the flight and I won't be able to repair some of the minute damage until we land."

"But we can make it to Meda?" I asked, just to be sure.

"Probably." Leo answered. "Assuming Percy doesn't pull any more stunts."

"Thanks Leo." I told him as I turned back to Percy. "Nice and shiny, eh?"

Percy's face flushed with embarrassment.

"Sorry, cap." He said. "Thought she could handle it."

I laughed at his expression.

"Luckily, you're not paid to think, Seaweed-brain." I teased him as I left the bridge and headed to the kitchen.

"So how are we looking?" Nico asked as I entered the kitchen.

"Bits and pieces falling off my boat, a pissed off mechanic that's trying to hold her together and a pilot who's trying to make a stare fighter out of my cargo freighter." I told him as I rubbed my forehead. "It's business as usual. How about you? Any luck on finding this C?"

He frowned at that.

"Very little." He told me. "Hires a new crew every few weeks. The old ones usually disappear. Some say they retire off all the credits they make from her, others say she has them killed. Authority's don't have anything on her so there is no real evidence of the later theory."

"Still," I said. "we should be careful. This whole job just feels off. I want you, Frank and Piper with me when we arrive. Leo will repair Serenity and everyone ells will be ready to get the hell out of here if things go south on us."

Nico nodded.

"Sounds like a plan." He told me.

"Spread the word." I told him. "Then get back to digging up what you can on this C. I don't like not knowing what we're walking into."

With that said I returned to my room and sighed out of frustration. I had a bad feeling about this job.

Time Break!

"This ain't right." Frank commented from next to me. "Where this person at?"

"Calm down Frank." Piper said. "They'll be here."

"He's right though." I said, not looking back at them as I stared at the fancy landing pad on a tropical paradise world we were standing on. "They should be here by now."

We had been standing on this landing pad for an hour now, Serenity parked in back of us and a gorgeous palace in front of us.

"It's a power play." Nico intoned. "Making us wait to show us how insegnifagent we are compared to C." He paused as we turned to him. "It's a way of saying her time is more valuable than ours because we waited for her."

"So, what do we do?" Frank asked.

"Wait." I told him.

He grunted in acknowledgment and leaned against Serenity's landing strut.

It was about this time that C came out onto the platform wearing a toga style dress.

"Annabeth!" She called out. "Good of you to make it! I have the cargo here she said, gesturing to the door in back of her as hundreds of Beagles came running out the door she just exited and they all ran onto my ship.

"Nice trick." I commented, trying to figure out how she trained them to do that.

"Isn't it just?" she said brightly. "And now as discussed." She waved her hand again as Two women in similar of its to hers exited the building with two suitcases each. They stopped in front of me and one opened a suitcase to reveal rows of credits.

"Nico?" I asked, not turning my back on C.

Nico stepped up and stood in front of the credits, staring at them. He wasn't as good as Hazel when it came to finding valuables but he had enough of the skill to tell how much something was worth.

Once he stared at the case he eyed to other three they were carrying before leaning over to me and whispering "Two hundred thousand credits."

"I thought you were only giving me half now." I said to C. "What's the deal?"

"My merchandise has nearly doubled since we spoke." C said to me. "So, I have doubled the pay. Is that a problem?"

"How did you bread that many dogs in four days?" Piper asked, looking confused.

"I have my ways." C said, eyeing us. "I think I might be able to give you a demonstration or two if the four of you follow me."

"Maybe when we pick up the rest of our pay." I told her as I took one of the cases and Piper and Nico took the others. "See you in a few days C." I told her as we boarded Serenity.

A MESSAGE FROM THE AUTHOR: Hope it was worth the wait. Post a review if you want me to continue.


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